[jmoss20]

Yeah, I had a similar upbringing, and this is my feeling as well. There's a massive trade-off here, but I do feel like the military kids I knew (and run into now) are radically more adaptable and sociable.

Another upside, in retrospect: you end up getting to see, up-close, a huge range of the social/cultural/political landscape.

It's hard to demonize an outgroup much when you at times were that outgroup -- or were at least, in the abstract, some outgroup. You end up forced to confront (deep-down, maybe mostly unconsciously) the arbitrariness and...malleability of a lot of things. You end up with a lot of tolerance. I'm thankful I had that experience, even if it was at times not particularly fun.

[ethbr1]

I've found foreign exchange students have a (lesser) version of this too.

I think it's fundamentally about increased tolerance to uncomfortable/novel situations.

Which suck. But apparently it is a learned skill! Or at least coping strategies are.

I'd be fascinated to see a study on adolescent coping strategies in non-military vs military child populations.